The present invention is directed to Internet advertising and, more particularly, to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) advertising system that places control of Internet advertising with the ISP.
Internet advertising revenue was almost $2 billion in 1998, according to surveys by the Internet Advertising Bureau. This was up from $906 million in 1997, and $267 million in 1996. There is no doubt that the Internet has arrived as a legitimate advertising medium.
For an advertiser, the value of advertising is the ability to direct an advertisement to a specific group of consumers. Thus, control over the advertisement in terms of when, where, how, to whom, etc., an advertisement is communicated is of paramount importance to the advertiser. Internet advertising is currently controlled primarily by the Internet content providers. An advertiser decides to place an ad on a particular content provider""s web-page with the hope that persons that access that web-page are potential consumers of the advertiser""s products. However, there is no guarantee that this is the case. Moreover, the content provider can provide no assurance to the advertiser that a particular ad will be directed to a specific group of consumers. This is true because content providers typically do not have access to demographic data about visitors to their web-pages. Furthermore, even if a content provider has access to their visitor""s demographic data, web-page advertising is not linked to that demographic data but rather, indiscriminately displayed to every visitor to that web-page. Consequently, Internet advertisers cannot ensure that their ads are reaching a desired target audience of potential consumers and, in fact, cannot control the audience of their ads at all.
The present invention advantageously provides to advertisers what traditional forms (e.g., print, radio, television, etc.) of advertising have, as yet, been unable to providexe2x80x94precise control over who receives an advertisement. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, an ISP provider may now offer advertisers precision advertising and an advertisement may be communicated from an ISP to one or more ISP customers based upon various criteria. For example, an advertiser may desire maximum exposure for an advertisement without regard for a particular target audience. Such advertisers will pay the ISP to communicate an advertisement during peak Internet usage times. Alternatively, an advertiser may want to reach a particular group of customers (e.g., 18-25 year-old males). In this case, the ISP can communicate an advertisement to ISP customers having a desired demographic make-up.
An ISP provider has access to precise demographic data on each of the ISP""s customers. The ISP provider also has access to data on the periods of usage, including the type of customers accessing the Internet during such periods of usage. With this information, which is available only to the ISP provider, an Internet usage profile may be compiled by the ISP provider that provides precise information on the ISP customers (e.g., demographic data) and the periods of heaviest Internet access by the various different ISP customer groups (e.g., 20-35 year old males, retired persons, children, etc.). With this information, the ISP can offer advertisers numerous ways to ensure that their advertisements reach the desired audience, which ensures that advertising dollars are well-spent.
The precision advertising provided by the present invention means that an advertisement may be directed to a specific, identifiable ISP customer, with the knowledge that ISP customer is a potential consumer of the advertiser""s goods and/or services. Thus, the ISP provider can assure its advertisers that advertisements are directed to and reach an advertiser""s potential consumers. No such assurance can be provided with other available forms of advertising, whether on the Internet or otherwise.
The precision advertising provided by the present invention also means that an advertisement may be broadcast to every ISP customer accessing the Internet at a particular time. In one example, an advertisement may be broadcast from the ISP to every ISP customer on-line at a particular time, where the ISP has been determined that the ISP customers accessing the Internet at that time are likely to be potential consumers of an advertiser""s goods and/or services. In another example, an advertisement may be broadcast from the ISP to every ISP customer online during times of peak usage by the ISP customers.
In an embodiment of the present invention, an ISP, in response to a request for information from an ISP customer to an Internet content provider, receives a web-page, including an advertisement, from the Internet content provider. The ISP removes the advertisement from the received web-page and inserts a desired advertisement in the received web-page. Alternatively, the ISP may not remove embedded advertising from the received web-page, yet still insert the desired advertisement therein. The ISP then communicates the received web-page, including the inserted desired advertisement, to the ISP customer.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an ISP communicates a desired advertisement to a plurality of ISP customers. The ISP receives a plurality of web-pages from a plurality of content providers in response to requests from a plurality of ISP customers. The ISP then inserts a desired advertisement in each of the received web-pages and communicates the modified received web-pages to each of the plurality of ISP customers.
The present invention is also directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer or client (i.e., online user), the ISP, using a computer program automatically inserts advertising, or appends advertising, or attaches advertising, or otherwise causes advertising to be transferred with the digital content.
The present invention is further directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically removes existing advertising from the digital content and then inserts new advertising, or appends new advertising, or attaches new advertising, or otherwise causes new advertising to be transferred with the digital content.
The present invention is additionally directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically inserts, or appends, or attaches, or otherwise causes the same advertisement to be transferred with a multiplicity of various different digital content (various different web-pages, videos, streaming videos, audio, streaming audio, graphics, etc.) to a plurality of ISP customers at substantially the same time.
The present invention is also directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically inserts, or appends, or attaches, or otherwise causes the same advertisement to be transferred, irrespective of the digital content being transferred, to a plurality of ISP customers at substantially the same time.
The present invention is further directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically inserts, or appends, or attaches, or otherwise causes various different advertisements to be transferred, irrespective of the digital content being transferred, to a plurality of ISP customers at substantially different times.
The present invention is additionally directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically inserts, or appends, or attaches, or otherwise causes a plurality of various different advertisements to be transferred with the same digital content (the same web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics, etc.) to a plurality of ISP customers.
The present invention is also directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically causes new advertising to be displayed with the digital content.
The present invention is further directed to a system of Internet advertising, wherein, in the transfer of digital content on the Internet, such as a web-page, video, streaming video, audio, streaming audio, graphics etc., from an ISP to an ISP customer, the ISP, using a computer program automatically causes advertising to be displayed first, for a predetermined period before the display of the digital content, and then the advertising displays with the digital content.
present invention is additionally directed to a system of Internet advertising viewer verification, wherein an ISP, using a computer program, automatically inserts, or appends, or attaches, or otherwise causes various advertising to be transferred with digital content to a plurality of ISP customers and using a computer program, the ISP automatically monitors, collects, and archives, demographic information of the ISP customers that received a particular advertisement at a particular time, for use by the sponsors of the advertisements.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a method of Internet advertising that assures advertisers that their advertisements are directed to and reach the advertiser""s potential consumers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an Internet advertising method by which an advertisement may be broadcast to every ISP customer accessing the Internet at a particular time.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification and drawings.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others thereof, which will be exemplified in the disclosure provided hereinafter, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.